18 Facts About Edison Records

Edison Records was one of the early record labels that pioneered sound recording and reproduction, and was an important player in the early recording industry.

Edison Records began to lag behind its rivals in the 1920s, both technically and in the popularity of its artists, and halted production of recordings in 1929.

Thomas A Edison invented the phonograph, the first device for recording and playing back sound, in 1877.

In 1887, Edison Records turned his attention back to improving the phonograph and the phonograph cylinder.

Edison Records holds the achievement of being one of the first companies to record the first African-American quartet to record: the Unique Quartet.

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Significant technological development at the Edison Records Laboratories was devising a method to mass-produce pre-recorded phonograph cylinders in molds.

Mass-producing cylinders at the Edison Records recording studio in New Jersey largely ended the local Edison Records retailers early practice of producing recordings in small numbers for regional markets, and helped concentrate the USA recording industry in the New York City – New Jersey area, already the headquarters of the nation's Tin Pan Alley printed music industry.

In 1908, Edison Records introduced a new line of cylinders playing 4 rather than 2 minutes of music on the same sized record, achieved by shrinking the grooves and spacing them twice as close together.

The Edison Records lab claimed a 3000+ playback quota for the Blue Amberol.

Columbia was frantic to find a solution to make cylinder blanks in-house, and the recipe for making Edison Records's wax was a well-kept secret.

The Edison Records Record, "Fisher Maiden", was an early record that was experimented with for the process.

In 1908, Edison introduced Amberol Records which had a playing time of just over 4 minutes.

Sales for Edison Records discs peaked in 1920, but declined incrementally thereafter.

In 1926, an attempt at reviving interest in the Edison Records Disc was with a 450-GPI long-playing disc, acoustically recorded and still spinning at 80 rpm, with times of 24 minutes per 10-inch disc and 40 for a 12-inch disc, but problems occurred, and the disc failed.

Concurrently, Edison tried to freshen its catalogues by recording popular dance bands such as those of B A Rolfe and Harry Reser, the Goldman Band conducted by founder Edwin Franko Goldman, jazz performers Eva Taylor and Clarence Williams, and radio personalities like Vaughn De Leath and "The Radio Franks" .

In 1928 the Edison company began plans for making "Needle Cut" records; by which they meant standard lateral cut discs like the "78s" marketed by almost every other company of the time.

Edison Records's remaining wax masters and thousands of metal master molds, including unissued experimental recordings dating to several years before Diamond Discs were commercially introduced, were purchased by Henry Ford, and became part of the collection of the Henry Ford Museum.

Some Edison Records catalogue is in the public domain and available for download at the Library of Congress website.